“I have no clue. Lou always seemed to run with an entourage—big or small. She accused me of collecting men to take care of me, but she did the same. I guess we were both affected by playing second fiddle to our parents’ great love.”
“Lou must’ve had issues before her parents’ divorce and her father’s remarriage to your mom.”
“I did, too.”
Jase hoisted Lou’s suitcase into the back of the truck and hooked his thumb in his belt loop. “Your father’s abandonment?”
“It’s hard growing up without a dad.” She folded her hands across her belly. “And here I am about to do the same thing to my child.”
“Hey.” He took her by the shoulders. “Through no fault of your own. You split up with Simon before you knew you were pregnant, right?”
She nodded.
“You tried to reach him, right?”
“Maybe not hard enough.”
“There’s no way you were going to find him.”
“What?” Her forehead furrowed.
“I mean, if he didn’t want to be found, you weren’t going to find him.” The napkin from Lou’s jeans burned a hole in his pocket. Had Simon somehow reached out to Lou before he was killed?
“Simon knew about Lou, didn’t he?”
“Knew about her but had never met her. When he started...acting weird, I told him I’d witnessed firsthand what could happen when mental illness went untreated. He’d heard all the stories about Lou. Why do you ask?”
He steered her toward the passenger side of the truck. “Just that—just wondering if he knew you’d dealt with erratic behavior before.”
“Oh, yeah. He knew.”
As he pulled away from The Sandpiper, he made a right turn and Nina put her hand on his arm. “Where are you going?”
“I want to head down to the harbor and see if anyone gave Chris a ride back to the mainland. If not, he checked out of The Sandpiper after midnight and waited around for about five hours for the next ferry out of here, which makes no sense at all.”
Nina wrinkled her nose. “You don’t think Pruitt and Chief Hazlett already checked that out?”
“I think Pruitt and the chief believe Lou’s death was a simple overdose. Case closed. This is a small-town department and they don’t have the resources to run around checking out possible leads on a hunch.”
“What are you saying, Jase? Do you think Chris had something to do with Lou’s death? Why? What possible motive could Chris have had for killing a woman he’d just met?”
Tempest. Why had Lou written that word? What did Chris Kitchens know about his brother’s work and eventual breakdown?
He squeezed her knee. “That thought didn’t occur to you?”
Nina plowed her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know what to think, Jase. As far as I know, Lou hadn’t been using H for years. Of course, it doesn’t mean she didn’t try it again. Maybe that’s why it killed her. She’d been used to a certain amount but her body couldn’t handle that anymore after being clean.”
“Could be. I just need to satisfy my curiosity.”
And to protect Nina.
After driving through town, he swung the truck into the parking lot for the wharf, busy with fishing boats and the tourist ferry that hopped from island to island. “Where are the private boats?”
She tapped the glass. “On the far side by the bait shop.”
He parked and Nina was out of the truck in a flash. Did she half hope that Lou’s death wasn’t an accidental overdose? Maybe she was afraid that Lou had taken her own life, just as her father had done, and felt guilty that her stepsister might have done it because of her pregnancy.
And she didn’t even know about Tempest.
He trailed after her as she marched up to a man working on his powerful-looking Wellcraft boat.
Nina balanced one foot on the boat and his heart skipped a beat. Then he took a long breath of salty air. He couldn’t wrap Nina in cotton. Despite all the stress swirling around her, she was taking care of herself.
She called out to the man, who still hadn’t seen her. “Good morning. Can I ask you a question?”
The man looked up from his work and pushed his cap back on his head, squinting at her with his already squinty eyes. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Do you take people to the mainland?”
He took her in and then shifted his gaze to Jase. “Depends on who’s asking, a potential customer or the state transportation agency.”
“Oh, I’m not—” she flung her arm back at Jase “—we’re not from any agency. I just want to know if you took a friend of mine to the mainland earlier this morning—like really early.”
He dropped his shoulders and adjusted his cap again. “I took a couple over about two hours ago. That’s it.”
“Okay, thanks.” She backed off the boat.
His voice stopped her. “You might check with Steve down that way. He’s the one with the Hewescraft aluminum boat about three slips over. I overheard him in the coffee shop this morning complaining about an early morning fare.”
“Thanks.”
Jase took her arm as if to steady her on the bumpy metal of the gangplank.
“Even if Steve did take Chris over this morning, what does it prove, Jase?”
“It proves that he left the island instead of checking out of the motel and then hanging around for a few hours to wait for the ferry, which makes no sense.”
“Whether he hung around or left immediately, it doesn’t necessarily implicate him in or exonerate him from Lou’s death.”
“Once that autopsy report comes back, it could.”
He slowed his steps. “Maybe we should let the cops do their job.” Or Prospero. The less Nina was directly involved in the destruction Tempest left in its wake, the better. She didn’t need the added stress of investigating Lou’s death.
She stopped and widened her stance, just in case he thought she was about to topple over. “Jase, you’re not my protector. You’re supposed to be fixing my B and B, not me.”
He should’ve investigated this on his own. His lids fell half-mast over his eyes and his mouth hardened for a split second. “You don’t need to prove anything here. Lou treated you badly until the very end.”
“She was my stepfather’s daughter. I owe it to Bruce to figure out what happened.”
Stepping back, he gestured her toward the boat. “Have at it, Nancy Drew.”
She brushed past him, rolling her eyes. Controlling and high-handed, just like Simon.
The next boat owner—Steve—was working on his engine when they walked up. She had to wave to get his attention over the roar of the motor.
He cut the engine and wiped his hands on a greasy cloth he had sitting on the deck behind him. “Do you need a ride to the mainland? It’s a good thing you’re gettin’ while the gettin’s good. Once that monster storm hits, there will be no crossing this sound.”
“Actually, we’re not. I live on the island. Do you know Moonstones?”
“I know Bruce Moore’s daughter was found there this morning—dead. OD’d just like we all expected her to one day.”
“Lou Moore was my stepsister.”
He scratched his grizzled jaw. “Sorry, young lady. You must be the other daughter. If it’s not a ride you’re after, what can I do for you?”
Jase wedged a foot against the boat. “We’d like some information about your early fare this morning.”
Steve uttered a curse and spat into the water. “I didn’t have a fare this morning. I got a call from a guy after midnight wanting a ride over, told him I’d meet him here, and he never showed up.”
“Did you call him back?”
“I sure did. He wouldn’t pick up. I thought maybe someone poached my ride, but if they did
, nobody’s fessing up to it.”
Nina reached for her phone and cupped it in her hand. “Do you still have the number on your phone? I just want to see if it’s my friend. I thought he was leaving the island last night. If he didn’t, I might have to take him over today.”
“Why don’t you just call him?”
“I tried.” She shrugged. “Same result as you. He won’t pick up or his phone’s dead or something. Do you mind?”
“Nope.” He chuckled. “In fact, if you’re an angry girlfriend, the guy deserves it.”
He reached for his cell phone sitting on a deck bin and tapped the screen. “Here it is. You ready?”
She displayed Chris’s number and nodded. He read off the exact number on her display, and her heart somersaulted.
“That’s not his number. Thanks anyway.”
He saluted and went back to work.
She pivoted and stepped off the gangplank onto the sidewalk that led to the parking lot.
“Are we done interrogating people for the day?”
She tapped her phone against her chin. “That was Chris’s number.”
Jase raised his brows. “Why’d you lie to Steve?”
“I didn’t want to get into any long discussion with him. Why would Chris try to get off the island after checking out of the motel and then change his mind?”
“I don’t know, Nina. Maybe we should just leave this alone. I need to get back to my laptop.”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “Of course you do. Sorry for dragging you all over town when you have work to do.”
“I was happy to do it, and I think I was the one doing the dragging.”
When they got back into the truck, he started the engine and turned to her. “I have a question for you.”
She formed a cross with two fingers and held them in front of her face. “Don’t ask me why I’m running around, trying to figure out Lou’s last hours on earth.”
“I’m not. I wasn’t.” Stretching his arms in front of him, he clasped the steering wheel. “You know those jeans you found on the back of the chair in Lou’s motel room?”
“Yeah?”
“Was she wearing those jeans when we saw her earlier in the night?”
A clothing question. She blinked. “I don’t think so. No. The jeans she had on the last time I saw her had metal studs along the back pockets, and those are the jeans she had on when she died.”
He pulled out of the parking lot and turned down the road toward the other side of town, toward Moonstones.
She studied his profile, which gave away nothing. “Why are you asking about Lou’s jeans?”
“Just curious about the piece of paper in the pocket.”
“The piece of paper?” She wrinkled her nose, trying to remember the word. Snapping her fingers, she said, “Tempest.”
“That’s right.” He paused for two beats. “Does it mean anything to you?”
“No. Should it?”
“You never heard it before?”
“Well, yeah, I’ve heard the word before, but not in any context related to Lou, except that she created a tempest wherever she went.”
Jase narrowed his eyes and drilled the road ahead. “Creating trouble everywhere.”
“That was Lou.” Her fidgeting fingers pleated the hem of her shirt. Were they even discussing Lou anymore?
He blew out a breath that turned into a whistle. “She won’t be causing any trouble now.”
When they returned to Moonstones, all Nina’s curiosity and energy had been overtaken by a leaden lethargy.
Jase had brought Lou’s suitcase into the house and Nina wheeled it into the corner, swallowing a lump in her throat.
“Are you going to write?”
“Do you need anything before I do?”
“I’m going to take a nap. Now that I’ve gotten over most of the nausea, the thing that bothers me most about this pregnancy is how it saps my energy in the middle of the day sometimes.”
“You hardly had any sleep last night, so I wouldn’t blame it on the pregnancy.”
“That’s true.” She stopped at the corner of the staircase. “Do you need anything before I drift off to dreamland?”
“I’m good.” He turned toward the guest rooms on the other side of the sitting room.
“Jase?”
He stopped and answered without turning around. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for everything...I mean last night, for holding me. I don’t think I would’ve fallen asleep on my own.”
His back stiffened but still he didn’t turn around. “It was...nothing. No problem. Glad I was here to help.”
He continued across the room and she didn’t stop him.
It was nothing. He’d said so. He just had one of those take-charge kinds of personalities—just like Simon—and what better way to indulge it than with a pregnant woman?
Why would he be remotely attracted to a woman carrying another man’s baby? Especially a man she’d admitted was half out of his mind. As if she hadn’t dragged Jase Buckley into enough crazy. If she didn’t watch it, he’d change his war story into a story about a crazy family starring drugs, suicide and demented ex-fiancés.
She clicked the bedroom door shut behind her and sat on the edge of the bed to pull off her boots.
Her eyes flicked to the window. Why had Lou come here to die? Maybe she’d shot up on the deck. That would be just like her to defile the place where Mom had died and that was so special to their parents.
But if she had injected a syringe full of heroin into her veins on the deck of Moonstones, she hadn’t been alone. The CSI team hadn’t found any drug paraphernalia on the deck, so someone would’ve had to remove it.
Is that what Chris had been doing while waiting for the morning ferry? Or is that why Kip had disappeared?
She rolled over and punched her pillow. Maybe Kip and Chris and Simon were all in the same place.
And they could all stay there as far as she was concerned.
* * *
NINA AWOKE WITH a start and a pounding heart. She ran her tongue along the inside of her dry mouth, dread thudding through her veins.
The last time she’d been startled awake, her stepsister had turned up dead on the deck outside.
She sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, her head cocked, listening for...whatever. She eased forward to peer through the drapes at the window and a glorious pink-and-orange sky greeted her. The calm before the storm.
She glanced at the clock. She’d slept away the afternoon. Hopefully, Jase had gotten some work done.
She rubbed her eyes and crossed the room. Still on alert, she pushed open her bedroom door and walked down the hallway that connected her rooms to the rest of the B and B.
She opened the door at the end of the hall and heard the clicking of a keyboard.
“Jase?”
“I’m here. Did you sleep well?”
She massaged the back of her neck and entered the sitting room, where Jase had set up shop near the window. She sauntered across the room, approaching him from behind, but if she’d hoped to catch a glimpse of his book, he disappointed her by minimizing his active window.
“Are you one of those writers who won’t share his work in progress?”
“I don’t know if I’m one of those writers. It’s all new to me. I don’t even know if it’s any good.” He drummed his thumbs on the edge of the keyboard. “You slept for a long time. Do you feel better?”
“Not about Lou’s death, but in general I do.”
“Hungry?”
She yawned. “I suppose I am, but I’m not up for cooking.”
“And you don’t want to taste my cooking. I can pick something up—just not pizza.”
“What’s the matter with pizza?” She bumped her forehead with the heel of her hand as she remembered the stale-pizza smell from Lou’s motel room. “No pizza. There’s a Chinese place that delivers.”
“Sounds good.”
“I already have the number saved to my cell phone.” Still yawning, she shuffled to the front door, where she’d hung her purse on a hook, and retrieved her phone.
The display showed two text messages—one from her demanding client in LA and one from a friend asking if she was still alive.
As she responded to her friend’s message, a third buzzed through. She recognized Chris Kitchens’s phone number and waved the phone at Jase. “Finally, a message from Chris.”
“What’s it say?”
She held the phone to her face and peered at the words as she read them aloud. “‘Leave the island. Your life is in danger.’”
Chapter Twelve
Jase’s heart slammed against his chest. Why would Chris be warning Nina?
She looked up from the display, her face drained of all color. “He found Simon.”
“Wait. What?” He ran a hand over his face. His mind had been traveling a completely different course, but Nina had reached a logical conclusion...for her.
“He doesn’t say that in the message, does he?” He thrust out his hand and she dropped the phone in his palm as if she couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
The message stated only what Nina had read aloud. “He doesn’t mention Simon.”
“What else could it be? Lou’s dead and she never posed a grave threat to me.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.”
“She doesn’t pose a threat now.” She pointed to the phone in his hand. “But someone does—and that someone has to be Simon.”
It couldn’t be Simon, but he couldn’t tell her that—not yet.
“Text him back.” He held out the phone to her. “Ask him where he is, who’s threatening you.”
“It has to be Simon.” She took the phone from him and flicked it with her finger. “That’s the connection with Chris.”
“Your stepsister just turned up dead and Chris was one of the last people to see her alive. Maybe this has something to do with Lou. You have no idea what Lou could’ve been into.”
The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) Page 12